Caro (and Abe):
>You don't have to move to a rural area to reduce your energy dependence,
>either. I live in a major city and I've been raising lots of fruit and
>veggies and some of my wood fuel for several years now. Plus, public
>transportation and a walking-distance location means we were able to sell
>one vehicle and drastically reduce use of the other.
Here's a post I recently sent to the homestead list about the Integral
Urban House in Berkeley, California:
Sascha [from Serbia]:
>I am interested in The Integral Urban House ,since I am traped in city
>right now.
Other than dirty air, questionable water and crowding, city life can be
okay. I recommend that you distill all drinking water.
>From the book by the same name, "The Integral Urban House is the Urban
Center of the Farallones Institute, a nonprofit organization devoted to the
study and teaching of environmentally sound lifestyles and life-support
systems. The house demonstrates the integration of food-raising, waste
recycling, and natural energy systems within the context of an urban home."
Space is intensively utilized. The house faces east. The front yard is
raised beds of alfalfa for the rabbits, an alternative to the usual grass
lawn. The widest side yard features an attached south-facing greenhouse
with a copper flat-plate, glass-covered solar water heater on its roof.
The backyard garden is mostly raised beds with narrow walkways.
"Approximately three to four hours of work a week is all that is required
to produce enough vegetables for a family of four . . . ." The back porch
has planter boxes for food production, to supplement the garden; these
contain herbs and salad greens for the adjacent kitchen. Drip irrigation is
used. "The porch also accomodates a self-contained chicken house, making
morning collection of eggs convenient, and a solar oven that cooks garden
produce and home-raised meat."
The southwest corner of the lot has a pool used for raising several species
of fish. "A wind machine above, constructed from oil drums and recycled
wood, operates a pump that cycles the water from the pond through a drum
purification filter. The drum is filled with oyster shells coated with
bacteria that remove nitrogen and growth-inhibiting enzymes from the water.
The water picks up oxygen as it descends from the filter bed into the
pond." Beehives behind the pond produce a hundred pounds of honey per year.
The narrow north-side yard has rabbit and chicken pens and compost bins.
Rabbits are housed above the chickens, so the chickens can pick over rabbit
manure, eliminating fly larvae. Three compost bins recycle all garden and
kitchen waste. "A flytrap constructed of screen and wood attracts and traps
neighborhood flies by means of an odiferous bait. The dead flies are fed to
the chickens."
A Clivus Multrum composting toilet sits in the basement under the kitchen
and bathroom. "After thirty months of decomposition, the finished product
is removed from the lower chanber and used as a soil amendment in the
garden." A greywater system includes a 55-gallon storage drum and a system
of valves to regulate seasonal use. Greywater cools in the drum before it
is sent by hose to the garden beds.
The kitchen features a combination gas/wood range, a cool closet utilizing
natural convection of air to maintain fruits and vegetables, and a pantry.
The flu pipe over the stove is donut-shaped to provide additional heat.
Another interesting heat device is a south-facing windowbox with shelves
holding gallon jugs full of black water. Outside shutters are closed at
night, letting the sun-collected heat into the room.
Well, Sascha, creating the above at your house should keep you out of
mischief for quite awhile. Have fun!
The Farallones Institute has evolved into the Ecological Design Institute.
Please check them out at:
http://www.ecodesign.org/edi/projects/education/farallones.html
and
http://www.ecodesign.org/edi/index.html
Some of Sim van Der Ryn's architectural and community planning design work
may be viewed at:
http://www.ecodesign.org/edi/projects/design/farallones.html
Gene GeRue
Author: How To Find Your Ideal Country Home
http://www.ruralize.com/
"Development of character consists solely in moving toward
self-sufficiency." (Quentin Crisp)
